2 Corinthians 4.11-5.10
‘Losing heart’ is one of those phrases that I know what it means without really being able to define it. The Message translation of this passage uses physical descriptions to translate what losing heart can look like: throwing up our hands and walking off the job, dropping our heads and dragging our feet.
I wonder, what is it that can make you lose heart? There is so much in the world around us that can drag us down, things that we see, hear or experience that just make us want to sigh and say ‘I give up’. Health, finances, relationships, injustice. But Paul confidently states “we do not lose heart”, and even states it twice just in case you didn’t hear it the first time! How can Paul say this so confidently, as though it is a fact?
Chapter 4, verse 1 tells us they do not lose heart “since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry”. Paul knows that his ministry is given to him by God, that it is not his own and is an act of mercy to be working for God in this way. When the hard times come (and they really did come for Paul) he does not lose heart in the midst of difficulty. Instead he holds onto the fact that it is God’s mercy to be engaged in ministry, even when this ministry brings hardship. Paul does not lose heart when he is “afflicted in every way”, “perplexed”, “persecuted” and “struck down”. Why? Because he is not “crushed”, he is not “driven to despair”, he is not “forsaken” and he is not “destroyed”. Paul sees how the trials and persecutions that he describes as “carrying the death of Jesus” are actually making the life of Jesus more visible.
In verse 16 we come to it again: “so we do not lose heart”. This time, because of what God is doing in us and because of the life that is to come. Paul would have been so aware of his outer nature wasting away as he experienced the type of mental and physical pain described in this passage, but he knows that his inner nature is being renewed day by day. God is at work in him. He knows that what he can see is temporary, but what cannot be seen, the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in each one of us, that is eternal. That is the part of us that will stand the test of time.
But being in the ‘temporary’ can be hard. We find it easier to trust in what we can see and we struggle to fix our eyes on what we cannot see. We struggle to live by faith rather than by sight. We want to switch this tent for our heavenly dwelling, to not have to deal with the things that drag us down and make us lose heart. But, wherever we are and whatever conditions we find ourselves in, Paul says our aim should be to please God. To remember that God’s extraordinary treasure is held in our very human-shaped clay jars. So, when life is tough, frustrating, unfair or painful, we can acknowledge this reality, as Paul does, but we can also acknowledge the reality of what God is doing in us and the eternal reality that is to come. So, we do not lose heart.
Let’s pray:
God, help us not to lose heart. We give to you all the very real things that are dragging us down at the moment, that are causing us to be downcast and place these burdens at your feet, knowing that you care for us. Give us an increase of faith to trust in what we cannot see, to trust in your transformational power at work in us day by day. We thank you that we can hopefully await a new heavenly body and a new heavenly home. But help us to please you while we live in this ‘in-between’, in our temporary home. May our lives, whether turbulent, or smooth, make the life of Jesus more visible.
Amen.